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The AV club pretty much summed it up:

"Sure, we didn’t get much closer to finding Rosie’s murderer—only that Rosie was at the casino late Friday night—but the pause in the investigation didn’t feel stagnant at all. Quite the opposite: This episode actually felt vibrant. Put another way, I am fine if The Killing takes detours, but the wandering should have a very clear point. Tonight, it did."

-I felt the curveball in tempo this week felt very Soprano's-like.
-Holder was great this episode.
-Linden cracked and finally showed some vulnerability and emotion. It was an answer to all those moments thus far where you may have wanted to reach through the tv and shake her, trying to get some kind of response out of her. We still need to know more about whom Jack’s dad is and why, even in her most desperate moment, Linden refused to contact him or even consider the possibility that Jack may be with him.
-No progress on Rosie except one more location of her timeline. The teaser for next week suggests that Rosie may not have been a completely innocent victim after all.

It fleshed out the characters incredibly. If you take the show to only be about a solution to figuring out who did it, yeah, it was a detour, but it fleshed out the two detectives in an incredible fashion.

It finally made Holder likable. Before you could understand him with the revelation he was an addict, but tonight he showed his humanity and ability to care.

MCN, my interest in the murder mystery is hanging on by a thread. What I found missing in previous episodes, as I mentioned before, was characters I was interested in. Linden was too stoic, Holder too faux-slacker-esque. In this last episode, as others have said, I thought we were getting some welcome and overdue insight into the cops' characters, and I found it more engrossing than most of the episodes in the series.

Perhaps you should try CSI El Paso (or whatever garbage they are putting out now). There they'll solve the murder for you in 30-45 minutes with cool sound effects and endless cliches!

The Killing is far from perfect and may not even be "good." But the murder mystery genre has been so bastardized and afraid to step out side the rules, that The Killing is a breath of fresh air to this viewer.

Tobias, I'm a reasonably intelligent TV watcher in my own right and I can even walk and chew gum at the same time. Unlike you and JakeH, I've lost interest in these characters despite all the hand-wringing in the last episode and I just want to find out whodunnit. The whole series has frustrated me to no end, the police work has been incompetent, the councilman is an idiot, and there are so many loose ends and false trails such that I am fed up.

About "Change of Subject."

"Change of Subject" by Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist Eric Zorn contains observations, reports, tips, referrals and tirades, though not necessarily in that order. Links will tend to expire, so seize the day. For an archive of Zorn's latest Tribune columns click here. An explanation of the title of this blog is here. If you have other questions, suggestions or comments, send e-mail to ericzorn at gmail.com.
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Contributing editor Jessica Reynolds is a 2012 graduate of Loyola University Chicago and is the coordinator of the Tribune's editorial board. She can be reached at jreynolds at tribune.com.